Thanks to the enormous spoils conquered in Dacia, Trajan was able to finance grandiose public works in Rome and throughout the rest of the empire.
For his ambitious projects, he called upon the greatest architect of his time, one of the very few whose name we know, Apollodorus of Damascus, who was responsible for the construction of extraordinary buildings that have marked the history of architecture throughout history, not only in Rome.
In 100 AD, Trajan commissioned Apollodorus of Damascus to design the enlargement of the port of Claudius at Ostia, where a storm had sunk as many as two hundred ships, as reported by Tacitus.
He built the Port of Trajan, a large hexagonal basin, over three hundred meters on each side, with warehouses and depots. It was linked to the river port on the Tiber (which would later become Ripetta), with a canal and a new road.
A grandiose work, crucial to Rome's supply: just think of the "Testaccio," the artificial hill created by millions of shards of amphorae (non-returnable containers), which transported oil, wine, grain, and other goods.
The new port was also crucial for the transport of precious marbles imported from across the Mediterranean to decorate the homes of Roman aristocrats.
APOLLODORO
To celebrate Trajan, his triumphs over Dacia, and his family (gens), Apollodorus of Damascus also designed Trajan's Forum, which was inaugurated in 113 AD.
It had a large rectangular square measuring 110 x 85 meters, with an equestrian statue of the emperor at its center. Its east and west sides were semicircular, and the east one bordered Trajan's Market, which was also designed and built during the same period by Apollodorus.
On the north side of the square was the Basilica Ulpia, dedicated to Trajan's gens Ulpia, where justice was administered and trade took place. It measured 170 x 60 meters and had a double inner portico supporting the roof, and two semicircles on the east and west sides.
To the north of the Basilica Ulpia was another rectangular space that, according to ancient sources, had two libraries on the short sides; Trajan's Column stands in the center. Further to the north, traditional reconstructions place a temple dedicated to the Divine Trajan by his successor Hadrian, but recent excavations have found no trace of it.
Trajan's Column is another outstanding monument from that era, created to celebrate Trajan's victory over Dacia. It is approximately 30 meters high, equivalent to the height of the excavation of the hill towards the Quirinal, built to make way for Trajan's Market. Composed of 17 large drums each 4 meters in diameter, it has an inner spiral staircase leading to the top, where the bronze statue of the emperor originally stood; it was later melted down and replaced by that of St. Peter.
The magnificent reliefs of Trajan's Column recount the two wars against Dacia and wrap it in a spiral around it.
The Museum of Roman Civilization in EUR (at Rome), which unfortunately has been closed for decades, has plaster casts of the relief, so tat it is possible to observe it in all its minute detail. It is an extraordinary graphic documentation of the Roman army, its war machines and soldiers' equipment, as well as the ritual ceremonies presided over by Trajan, such as sacrifices and the adlocutio, or speech to the troops before the battle.
Inside the base of the Column was placed the golden urn containing Trajan's ashes: only he, Optimus Princeps, was granted the privilege of being buried within the city walls, and no other emperor before or after him.
PANTHEON FRONTONE
And then, the Pantheon. As we explain in our book «Pantheon Architecture and Light» (also in English edition) when Agrippa's first Pantheon was definitively destroyed during the reign of Domitian, it was rebuilt from scratch. For a long time, its reconstruction was attributed to Hadrian, who, out of modesty, left Agrippa's ancient dedicatory inscription on the pediment of the portico, as we know from the Historia Augusta.
In reality, construction of the new Pantheon began during Trajan's reign, as evidenced by the discovery of brick stamps dating between 114 and 117 AD.
Given that the Pantheon still boasts the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, it is clear that it could only have been designed by an exceptional architect like Apollodorus of Damascus, to whom this extraordinary building is now attributed.
Apollodorus of Damascus also designed the Baths of Trajan, which obliterated the structures of Nero's Domus Aurea, helping to partially preserve them until their rediscovery in the 16th century. The Baths were inaugurated in 109 AD, oriented southwest for maximum exposure to the sun's rays, a featrure found in most Roman thermal buildings.
Their enormous size and the large number of people they could accommodate set the precedent for the Baths of Caracalla, the grandest in Rome.
Trajan also took care of the Circus Maximus, which had been destroyed by fire during the reign of Domitian. He completed its reconstruction and enlarged it (it measured 621 x 118 meters), could have 250,000 spectators. In addition to chariot races and gladiatorial combats, Naumachiae were held there, spectacular reenactments of great naval battles: the Circus arena was flooded by the waters of the Tiber. The Circus's spina was decorated with two obelisks, and it seems that there also was a temple dedicated to the Sun.
Trajan built other ports, aqueducts, roads, triumphal arches, and monuments throughout the Empire, which we will discuss in Part Three.